Month: April 2009

Bryansk High Female School #1, Russia,1947. There as we were schoolchildren we were hurrying with our pencil-boxes and books to meet our first teacher starting from grade 1 till grade 7 (completion of Junior High), our strict, fair and beautiful Nina Nickolaevna Ledneva. For seven years she united us in a spirit of intense learning,…

Whether you are a Tsar or a noble person, or a peasant. In times of sorrow, need, sufferings we become as little children before the heavenly thrown, heaven knows not rank, status, position or wealth. It only knows what is in your heart: are you humble or are you charitable, are you caring, do you…

A Conversation with Ivan Maximovich, a Connoisseur of Russian Literature and Culture. I.M. You said that the great Russian poets are the Ryabinins and what about Pushkin, our national pride, the verses of whom we were taught starting from the school bench. V.N. Do you know what? Definitely, Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin (1799-1837) was a great…

We are sitting in your room, Gleb, where everywhere your pictures are hanging on the walls, reminding us, Janko and me, about you as if you never left us since last summer. To-day it is the 24th of April, Happy Birthday to you, Gleb, and many happy wishes to you: first of all, good health,…

My life with CPR started on the hot summer day of July 27, 1976. My first assignment on starting was at St. Luce’s railway yards in Montreal. It was both interesting and fascinating for me as I just returned from Calgary by train which it was one of many trips I had made across Canada…

Nowhere I could find the real pictures of the Ryabinins great Russian poets, epic story tellers. This is why it is shown here a piece of an artist’s imagination of old Russian story tellers. To attune your ear to the Russian ancient melody it is included also the performance of folk Russian group “Belorybitsa”, song…

Why you may ask such a poetic opening to describe a week’s vacation? Because we like Kootneys Mountains, very high and majestic. This was planned to be our first Christmas and Janko’s 61-st Birthday on the 27-th of December away from home. Our drive was both unevenful, but very beautiful. The weather was perfect even…

The Kizhi State Museum of Architecture and Cultural History was founded in 1966. The open-air museum is situated in 68 km from Petrozavodsk on Kizhi Island in lake Onega. The core of the architectural collection of 87 buildings is the 22-domed Church of Transfiguration (1714) on photo to the left and the Church of Intercession…

Russia today as well as during its historic past has faced many challenges, the greatest of these has been its vast distances which covered thousands and thousands of kilometers. To meet these challenges was never easy, this was the reason why so few foreigners really saw or understood Russia. Roads that existed in Russia then…

2007. On our trip to Russia last time we found out that there are two cities of Peter the First’s creation: St. Petersburg and Petrozavodsk. Both towns are beautiful, both celebrate the czar Peter as a founder as one can see the two monuments dedicated to him. What is special about each of those cities?…